It’s that “known” caveat that gets me worried. My nightmares will now be populated by unknown predators of humans which are partial to a cappuchino while picking the bits of Long Pig from between their teeth.

Proximal to me there exists a bed and breakfast on the Mississippi River called The Anderson House in Wabasha, Minnesota, ( tinyurl.com/pr6jobs ) at where legend ( and a children’s video / book [tinyurl.com/pet8hvg ] with which I have some time ago already gifted grandkiddos ) has it that decades ago, a saddened man came to stay overnight. One of ( if not ) THE oldest roadhouses on the prairie.

The hotelier noting the man’s despondency asked her guest if, perhaps, he would not like to have her hostel’s ‘ house cat ’ for the evening — as a comfort for whatever was the matter.

Thus was born the bed and breakfast’s cat room. Not with chocolates on the pillow; no plush robe on the bathroom door’s hook, rose petals nowhere. One may receive, for the night however, a Whole, Entire … … Kitteh !

When I visited there in 1996, the proprietors had had 24 such Kittehs for folks’ Comfort for the Evening … …

The place in the early 2000s, I had heard from a distance, had run in to financial difficulties; but I believe that, soon after, it acquired new owners and is back up and operational.